Close on the heels of the accident in Chennai on Monday that claimed the lives of four students while travelling on the footboard of a bus, Coimbatore City Police, on Tuesday, launched a drive against the practice in city buses.

In the day-long drive conducted on almost all arterial roads, police not only off-loaded those hanging precariously on footboards but also booked the conductors of private as well as Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC – Coimbatore Division) buses for permitting footboard travel.

Allowing passengers to board beyond the permit condition was also an offence.

Permits for every bus come with stipulated seating and standing capacity and exceeding the same was a violation of the permit condition, police officials said. First-time violation of permit condition will attract a fine of Rs 2,500 under the provisions of 192 A of Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Act, but the subsequent violations could lead to suspension or even cancellation of the vehicle permit.

Instructions

On instructions from Commissioner of Police A.K. Viswanathan and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Pravesh Kumar, Assistant Commissioners of Police and Inspectors from the traffic wing deputed officers at road junctions on all arterial roads to intercept buses with passengers travelling on footboard.

While such of these passengers were made to disembark and let off with a warning, conductors of the buses were levied a fine of Rs. 100 under the provisions of Section 177 of Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Act for allowing persons to travel on footboard.

However, the police in association with Transport Department are planning to initiate action against the conductors of such buses for permitting footboard travel and violating the permit condition.

In Coimbatore City East, conductors of as many as three Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses and 17 private buses and in Coimbatore West conductors of as many as five Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses and 21 private buses were fined.